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Arkansas nearly pulled off an incredible comeback, but came up just short in Sunday’s rubber match at Texas A&M.
Dylan Leach’s two-run pinch-hit double in the eighth inning pulled the Razorbacks within one and put the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position, but they couldn’t get over the hump and lost to the Aggies 11-10 at Blue Bell Park in College Station, Texas.
Following a second pitchers’ duel in a row Saturday afternoon that saw Arkansas come out on top, an offensive explosion by both sides resulted in a wild game that ended with Arkansas dropping just its second regular-season rubber match in its last 11.
“Just a lot of emotions in that game,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “Obviously we got off to a really bad start on the mound. We were down 5-0 before we knew what happened. … We came fighting back. We never quit. Guys were believing. We were right there, obviously.”
Trailing by as many as eight runs and still down by six entering the eighth, thing got tense with Arkansas down to its final six outs.
It started with a leadoff home run from Cayden Wallace and then a single by Michael Turner forced a pitching change. After Robert Hogan pegged Robert Moore to start his outing, Chris Lanzilli and Peyton Stovall strung together back-to-back RBI singles to bring the Hogs within three.
Jalen Battles then walked, loading the bases for Leach, who was pinch hitting for Zack Gregory for the third day in a row. After making his outs his first two chances, he proved Van Horn correct this time by sending a soft liner barely over Jack Moss’ glove at first base to push two more runners across the plate.
“He did it with two strikes, hit a tough pitch the other way and off the end of the bat, got it over the big tall first baseman who was playing him deep,” Van Horn said. “He did everything we asked him to do, and that’s go up there and compete.”
With runners on second and third and no outs, Braydon Webb, Brady Slavens and Wallace all proceeded to be struck out by the left-handed Jacob Palisch, who also surrendered the two-run double.
"We struck out six times the whole game, but we struck out three times in the top of the eighth with runners at second and third and nobody out, with the top of our order," Van Horn said. "(Webb and Slavens) both got called out looking, which is kind of tough. Whether it was outside or whatever, both of them, it is was it is. You’ve got to make contact somehow."
Despite a lights out half inning from closer Brady Tygart, Palisch came back out and retired Turner, Moore and Lanzilli in order to close out the game for the Aggies.
Here are some other takeaways from the rubber match defeat…
Woeful Wiggins
Following an outing against LSU that saw him overcome early struggles, Jaxon Wiggins didn’t get a chance to do the same against the Aggies.
The sophomore right-hander walked each of the first two batters he faced, setting up Jack Moss’ two-run double into the left field corner. Wiggins then issued another walk before striking out Brett Minnich looking despite missing his spot
“The same thing everybody saw,” Van Horn said when asked what he saw in Wiggins’ start. “He couldn’t throw the ball over the plate. Pretty simple.”
That would be the lone positive result of the outing, though, as he allowed a no-doubt three-run bomb to Austin Bost, giving the Aggies a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
He almost collected a second out after forcing a soft tapper to Stovall at first, but Wiggins was late breaking off the mound to cover the bag and was beat out by a half step.
The infield single capped the worst outing of Wiggins’ career, as he was immediately pulled in favor of Kole Ramage. The dreadful start ended with him receiving his first loss of 2022, bringing his overall record to 5-1.
